Okello’s life purpose is summed up in the name of his NGO – Africa Vision 525. Of course, 25th May 1963 was the day the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was established in Addis Ababa and it later transformed into the African Union. Okello’s life work has been to build African unity and solidarity. Early in his teaching career in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, he developed the idea of organising the Organisation of African Unity Mock Summit every year.
My good friend and senior colleague, Okello Oculi died on 26 July, aged 83, after a brief illness. Originally from Uganda, Okello has lived in Nigeria for the past 48 years and raised a Nigerian family. We both taught Political Science at Ahmadu Bello University in the post-1978 era. Friends, colleagues and students remember him as a deep thinker, an inspirational intellectual and above all, as someone who remained fully committed to promoting the Pan-African ideal throughout his life.
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Okello graduated in Political Science from Makerere University in 1967. The following year, while still in his mid-twenties, he launched his career with the publication of two books, Orphan, a long poem, and Prostitute, a novel. Orphan addresses the theme of loss, vulnerability and social neglect. The poem delves into the emotional and physical struggles faced by a child who has lost their parents, highlighting how orphans often experience abandonment, poverty, and a lack of protection in society. These were some of the themes he would continue to work on for the rest of his life.
The second book was a novel, Prostitute, which explores several deeply interwoven themes defining Africa’s post-colonial condition through the life of Rosa Nakintu, a young woman who is uprooted and forced into prostitution by the newly emerged African ruling class. Rosa is torn from her rural village to the bustling city, only to be subjected to sexual assault and driven into prostitution, a tragic symbol of the vulnerability and isolation experienced by many rural migrants. The novel conveys the breakdown of traditional community bonds and the loss of identity. The real problem demonstrated in the work is the rapid rise of political corruption by the predatory elite.
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These two important books should have been central to the African debates of the 1960s and 1970s, as Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiongo’ s novels were, but alas that was not the case. While the writers at that time published with Heinemann, which had an African Writers Series, Okello rejected the idea of using an European “imperialist” publisher and went for the only indigenous publisher around then, East African Publishing House, which immediately went bankrupt and Okello’s works disappeared with it. Such was his commitment that he refused to re-publish these works with an “international” publisher and they were lost for a very long time until they more recently reappeared on Amazon. I suspect that the experience really shook him because he did not return fully to creative writing until almost thirty years later.
Okello, the teacher, was deeply committed to building the knowledge of his students but also their confidence and self-esteem. Transforming studious Political Science students into stars boosted the self-assurance of many a student. Indeed, a former female senator, who was a performer in one of the Summits, made the point that her participation was her personal breakthrough in public speaking, which eventually led her to enter politics and rise to the top.
It was providence that laid the conditions for Okello to live a long and fulfilled life. He was an assistant lecturer in early 1971, when following Idi Amin’s coup, soldiers raided the Makerere University Political Science Department and arrested him. All indications were that he would be executed within days, as the others were, for the crime of being a young intellectual from the “wrong” ethnic group. Luckily, his Head of Department, Professor Ali Mazrui, was at that time still close to Idi Amin and he intervened, securing his release. After helping him gain his freedom, Mazrui arranged for Oculi to leave Uganda through a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship in 1972 to pursue studies at the University of Wisconsin, where he eventually completed his PhD. Mazrui himself later had to flee Uganda when Idi Amin came for him and he joined Okello in exile in Nigeria, teaching for some years at the University of Jos.
Okello’s life purpose is summed up in the name of his NGO – Africa Vision 525. Of course, 25th May 1963 was the day the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was established in Addis Ababa and it later transformed into the African Union. Okello’s life work has been to build African unity and solidarity. Early in his teaching career in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, he developed the idea of organising the Organisation of African Unity Mock Summit every year. Students played the roles of president of African countries. It immediately became very popular with students and the Summit itself became a national event, with attained a pride of place on national television. A great ambition of generations of Professor Oculi’s students was to perform well in the event.
The Summit had a powerful pedagogic element, as groups of students working on each country had to study the policy positions of the said countries, prepare and present speeches and even learn the accents of African presidents to give convincing performances. It greatly increased student’s knowledge of the continent and generated massive campus-wide debates on the appropriateness of the policy positions of African countries. In particular, it placed the question on the table, of which countries were promoting African unity and which ones were opposing it. After leaving ABU and moving to Abuja, Okello continued the African Union Summits, this time with secondary school girls in the capital city.
Okello, the teacher, was deeply committed to building the knowledge of his students but also their confidence and self-esteem. Transforming studious Political Science students into stars boosted the self-assurance of many a student. Indeed, a former female senator, who was a performer in one of the Summits, made the point that her participation was her personal breakthrough in public speaking, which eventually led her to enter politics and rise to the top.
We remember Okello for his kind and loving disposition, his constant smiles, his commitment to a better future for the African people and his life-long effort to build generations of Africans with the ambition to leave the continent better than they found it. To his wife Debrah, his son Sembene and all his mentees, I pray God gives them the strength to bear the loss.
Okello was also active with the media. He ran a newspaper column for years and was on the editorial board of the Trust newspapers. It was in that capacity that he played a major role in the organisation of the African of the Year Award. He played a key role in the identification of the first laureate to emerge – the Congolese gynaecologist, Denis Mukwege. He was the one who drew attention to his on-going combat on sexual violence as a weapon of war in the Congo. Thanks to Okello, Dr Mukwege was awarded the African of the Year award long before he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2018.
Okello’s message to Africa’s ruling classes is worth repeating. Stop deepening the vulnerabilities of citizens, build their strength. Stop the colonial policy of divide-and-rule, promote unity to build on the innate strength of the African people. Do not use African regional organisations as a prop for self-aggrandisement. Turn them into pillars of unity and strength.
We remember Okello for his kind and loving disposition, his constant smiles, his commitment to a better future for the African people and his life-long effort to build generations of Africans with the ambition to leave the continent better than they found it. To his wife Debrah, his son Sembene and all his mentees, I pray God gives them the strength to bear the loss.
A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.
